We spent the last few days on Kume Island, which we had read was the prettiest of the smaller Okinawan islands. After a few hours there we realized the guidebooks had been silent on whether the other islands were pretty at all.
Oh, it was all right. The sea was blue, the hotel pool was clean, and we rode bikes to an extremely cool volcanic formations and ate a kick-ass fish dinner in a friendly restaurant. But it was also run-down, insanely windy, and creepily empty. At first we thought it would be awesome to have a tropical island to ourselves, but after a few hours we felt very conspicuous, and like maybe everyone else knew something we didn't.
So now, as we sit in the tiny airport waiting for an expensive last-minute flight because the ferry is docked due to giant waves, we have vowed to each other: no more side trips to out-of-the-way vacation spots in the off season.